Capt. Fitzgibbons, Co. H, of Bridgeport, kindly furnished us with the subjoined statement. He is a gentleman of intelligence, and the information derived from him can be relied upon as accurate. His statement is confirmed by Lieut. Lee, also of Bridgeport, who was side by side with Capt. F. in the engagement at Bull’s Run. Capt. Fitzgibbons has been in active military life about eight years, and now holds a Lieut. Colonel’s commission in the 8th Regiment of our own State militia.

Capt. Fitzgibbon’s Statement

The long roll sounded pleasantly in our ears while encamped at Fall’s Church, and at 2 o’clock P. M., Tuesday, the 16th, we marched to Vienna, where we bivouacked over night. About 6 o’clock the nest morning we took up the line for Fairfax, by way of Germantown. Our division, under the command of Col. Keyes, consisted of the 1st, 2d and 3d Conn., and the 2d Maine Regiments; the 1st and 2d Conn. regiments acted as skirmishers, and marched around Fairfax, while the remainder of the division marched directly forward. As we approached Germantown, we saw a secession flag flying on top of one of the houses. The 8th N. Y. regiment fired two shots at what was supposed to be a masked battery; our skirmishers fell upon their faces, ready to come up after the fire had been returned. The rebel battery fired over them, however. A member of the 8th N. Y. pulled down the flag, as we approached, and ran up the stars and stripes instead. This house was supposed to be the headquarters for the rebels. As we went through Germantown several houses were fired, but I am happy to say that none of our Connecticut troops had any hand in the firing of the buildings. – The house whereon the rebel flag was raised was entered by our men and found to be evacuated by the troops; tables were set, and our men partook freely of what they could find to eat. Our advanced and halted between Germantown and Centerville over night, where we bivouacked. Friday, about daybreak, we marched on for Centreville, where we arrived about noon. We could distinctly hear that an engagement was going on, before we arrived in sight. Several of our officers and civilians saw the engagement; none of our men took part. The secessionists, men, women, and children, followed up the rebel army; as we advanced, they pushed on, and they informed us that there was a great body of troops ahead of us.

Saturday, the 20th, we were notified to cook three days’ rations; that night we packed up, and at tow o’clock in the morning started for Bull’s Run. Our (Colonel Keyes’) brigade led off, until we got about half way, when we were called off into a corn field and filed off, and saw the whole column pass by. the 1st regiment boys felt a little discomfitted at this move, for fear they would not have a chance in the fight. We brought up the rear, and rested about half an hour, when the order came to again forward. This was about 7 o’clock in the morning. We marched into line, and about the first introduction we had was a charge by one of those masked batteries; we deployed a little to get by, ,when the men rallied in good order. Gen. Tyler rode by and praised our boys for their gallant appearance. We [??????]…they returned the fire, but their shots went over us, as we had dropped upon our faces. While in this position we loaded and fired another charge into them. One of our batteries came up and silenced one of their batteries which was playing upon us. As soon as their battery was silenced, the remainder of our brigade came up. We compelled the rebels to retreat, and as we moved on we encountered another battery; the 3d Conn. and the 2d Maine charged and suffered greatly. We then commenced scouting here and there, always putting in a fire when we got a chance. There was a continual fire upon us by their artillery, which was met by our musketry. We kept on fighting, Gen. Tyler assuring us we had won the day. He acted bravely; so did Col. Keyes and Col. Spiedel; Col. Burnham stood by his regiment. Soon afterwards, the order came to fall back, and we did so, not knowing it was a retreat; we were then in good order, and were accompanied by the Zouaves and Schenck’s brigade; saw the Zouaves make a splendid charge on the Black Horse Cavalry of Va.; it was a hand to hand conflict for a few moments with them, and the latter were cut up badly. We kept up a retreat, followed up by the enemy’s artillery and musketry. We saw the dead and wounded being carried from the field, some on blankets and others stretched on muskets. My company brought away six prisoners. We retreated in good order back to Centreville, to where we encamped the night before, arriving about dark. We remained here three hours and then had orders to fall back to Fall’s Church, which is about 25 miles from Bull’s Run. – We staid at Falls Church during Monday, and the next night had orders to march to Camp Upton, where the Ohio troops were encamped; we staid here during the night, and it was at this spot we saved some $200,000 of property, which had been left behind by one of the Ohio regiments. We struck their tents, took them to Alexandria, and loaded some six or eight cars with their trappings,, and about a ton and a half of ammunition. They had the finest camp equippage I ever saw. The War Department gave us great credit for what we had done.

Wednesday night we bivouacked at Arlington Heights; the next day we started for Washington. – We left Thursday afternoon, and arrived at Baltimore at 3 o’clock Friday morning, where we were detained until 6 P. M. waiting for conveyances; left Baltimore arrived at Havre de Grace, where we suffered another detention of five or six hours. We reached Philadelphia Saturday afternoon, and arrived in Jersey City about 4 o’clock Sunday morning; went on board the steamer Elm City at 4 o’clock and reached New Haven at 10.

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!